By STEPHANIE KUNDA
NDOLA City Council (NCC) has terminated the joint venture agreement entered into with Henan Gouji, a Chinese company, for the construction of housing units.
The local authority and Henan Gouji formed a company called NCC-Henan Gouji on May, 31, 2013.
NCC public relations manager Tilyenji Mwanza said NCC had contributed a piece of land and Henan Gouji was to construct over 1,000 housing units, which had not yet happened.
“The local authority has since written to Henan Gouji through its lawyers Messrs Mweemba Chashi and Partners, stating its position to terminate the joint venture agreement,” she said.
Ms Mwanza said the decision by NCC to terminate the agreement was arrived at after several consultative meetings with stakeholders, especially that the land in question had been encroached upon.
Ms Mwanza said in expounding the local authority’s decision, acting Town Clerk Wisdom Bwalya stated to Henan Gouji that the extent of encroachment on the said piece of land was overwhelming and would prove to be a very big challenge to address, hence the council’s decision.
She said Mr Bwalya noted that the encroachment covered almost the whole piece of land meant for the project.
Ms Mwanza further said NCC would like to clarify that they were not offering any alternative piece of land to China Henan Gouji because they currently did not have such powers as the land agency remained suspended.
She said the local authority, who wrote to Henan Gouji on the November 17, was still waiting for a response from Henan Gouji lawyers.

By JUDITH NAMUTOWE -
THE Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) has said the feasibility study on the Batoka Hydropower Station has been reviewed.
ZRA chief executive officer Munyaradzi Munodawafa said in an interview yesterday that the review on the demo structure, power house and capacity output on the project had been completed.
Mr Munodawafa said the authority was currently waiting for the second phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
‘‘We have reviewed the Batoka Hydropower Station feasibility study. The study on the demo structure, power house structure and the capacity output on the project has been completed,’’ Mr Munodawafa said.
He said the finalisation of the study and the EIA was expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
Mr Munodawfa said consultants were currently working on other processes and thereafter the project committee which include senior Government officials , utilities and ZRA would visit the project this month.
He said once all these processes were completed, ZRA would then be able to select the developer for the project, after which the authority would be able to come up with the actual value of the project.
Zambia and Zimbabwe signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to team up and start the Batoka hydropower project which is estimated to cost about US$4 billion.
The agreement was signed during the council of ministers held at Kariba in Siavonga recently.